Too 'dangerous' for Henry James: Violet Paget, the radical lesbian writer who shook the art world

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For all of the great historical women we’ll remember and celebrate today, there are just as many whose stories and achievements have been largely forgotten.

One such woman is Violet Paget, a 19th century writer and art critic who published under the pseudonym Vernon Lee. A lesbian, a feminist, and an antivivisectionist, she supported women’s suffrage, campaigned against the First World War, and was part of a group investigating the psychology of sex. These days she is known mainly for her works of supernatural fiction, particularly her 1890 collection Hauntings. What few remember, however, is her groundbreaking contribution to the aesthetics field of art criticism, with a theory so radical it...